I’ve been lurking here for some time and decided it was time to join up… I’m a relative novice who’s lucky enough to own some very nice tools, and this site has really helped me learn how to use them. But as you’ll see below, I’m very much a work in progress.

I recently finished making a pair of outdoor planters from a plan I liked in Woodsmith magazine. Overall I’m pleased with how they came out. I used some leftover cedar from my recently completed deck to make the panels, and stained them to match the deck. The paint on the frame matches the painted steel railing on my deck.

In the pic you can see that around the panels is some simple shop-made molding. I used my air nailer to attach the molding with 1” nails. It worked great; using the nailer always makes me feel like Norm Abrams.

Unfortunately, this morning I realized that the nails I used specifically say “for interior use only.”

Since I didn’t use glue to attach the molding I could easily remove it and (I assume) find some galvanized nails for my gun. (One potential problem with that is while the molding itself is cedar, the frame of the planters—what the molding is being attached to—is made of pressure-treated pine. I vaguely recall that galvanized hardware doesn’t play well with pressure treated wood?)

My question is, should I bother to remove and reattach the molding? Will the nails rust into oblivion or otherwise cause trouble? Or is there any way to seal the nail-head holes with some sort of protectant? If I do remove the molding and nails, should I use galvanized nails to reattach?

As a side note, if you don’t mind answering yet another question: Did it make sense to use pressure-treated pine for the frame when I was going to paint it anyway? Would regular pine have worked just as well?

7 replies so far

For PT, you can use hot dipped galvanized nails. I recently tore down an old shed I built 18 years or so ago and the Paslode nails in the PT 4X4s were fine.

Good yellow pine would probably be OK but the light weight white pine carried at big box stores probably not. Is there a liner or something to protect wood from soil/moisture? Or, in my case, the wife would probably want to change them out for a different style/color before any rot would’ve occurred :)

yes using green treated was good call, especially for planter. Untreated pine would be sure to rot. I would leave the trim on and just add more fasteners that are acq approved. The new treatment is different than the old and is corrosive to steel.

Given these are planters, and presumably will receive regular irrigation, its a good thing you used treated framing. Its disappointing to see your labor pop at the seams after just a couple of years. Consider also adding an interior waterproof coating prior to placing soil. A large planter will be called on to retain a considerable load of moist soil and plants and this is a constant pressure stressing the joints from the inside out, so I would add epoxy coated screws to the construction to keep it all together over the longer term.

It hasn’t failed yet? Looking at your boxes I would say they probably won’t (merely affixing trim to solid material). If they do, use some suitable glue and nail them back up (the nails only serving as clamps until the glue sets). Btw, I stumbled across a Loctite adhesive (caulk gun) that I am really impressed with…flows really well, quick grab, comes out white but dries clear (and no I do not get any money from any products I suggest). Like most caulk products though you’ll use a little and throw the rest away.

Thanks everyone. Luckily these planters will sit on my deck rather than the ground, and they’re made with adjustable shelves to hold large pots (rather than dirt) so hopefully they’ll last reasonably well without direct earth contact. I will take the advice and add some proper galvanized nails to help hold the molding in. If needed someday, I’ll try that Loctite adhesive.